In March of 1999, the New York Academy of Sciences is sponsoring a conference entitled Oxidative/Energy Metabolism in Neurodegenerative Disorders. The conference is expected to take place at The Rockefeller University in New York City. The Principle Investigator and chair is John P. Blass, M.D., Ph.D. The conference cochair is Fletcher H. McDowell, M.D. The purpose of the conference is to bring together basic and clinical investigators studying oxidative/energy metabolism in neurodegenerative diseases. This conference will emphasize disorders where there is evidence of genetically determined or other discrete abnormalities in oxidative/energy metabolism rather than conditions in which energy metabolism is impaired secondary to major insults to the brain such as stroke or trauma. Focusing on disorders in which relatively discrete, molecular genetic abnormalities occur will facilitate a focused and penetrating examination of the fundamental mechanisms involved. The conference will emphasize, but not be limited to, conditions which affect mitochondria, the subcellular organelles which are the major sites of production of energy and free radicals (ROS) in mammalian cells. This meeting will bring together basic scientists who are studying energy metabolism and the generation of ROS at a fundamental level and clinical investigators who are examining disordered oxidative/energy metabolism in neurodegenerative diseases. The interdisciplinary interaction of these groups of investigators will alert the basic scientists to the clinical implications of their studies and the clinical investigators to the need to study energy metabolism in neurodegenerative disease at a mechanistic level. The meeting will lead to transpolination of ideas among the basic and clinical investigators and help to close the gap between basic and applied biology and neurobiology. The proceedings of the conference will be published as a volume of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences will be distributed internationally. This volume will be valuable to investigators entering this rapidly expanding field, and in particular will indicate to younger clinical investigators the need to ask mechanistic questions about these disorders.